Official Announcement: Chris Jordan joins the McCarkiss Elite Project

We are pleased to announce the formal acceptance of Chris Jordan into the McCarkiss Elite Project, his anxiety before the Reading half and his desire to be at the race HQ around 2.5 hours before the start, confirmed he has what it takes.

The project is rumoured to have turned down 11 approaches from budding egocentric and distinctly average athletes since its inception, mainly due to the fact McCarthy and Simkiss just wanted it all to be about them. However, at the 2014 AGM it was agreed that the Project would open its gates to new recruits in a process of, as the chairman described it, organic growth.

Let’s open the gates to new recruits in a process of organic Growth – Richard Simkiss

Jordan at Abingdon 2014

The media were keen to get a photo of Jordan in his official club strip, but they are ‘bespoke, made to order’ and the printer is currently flat out printing the ‘Henley in Arden Women’s Institute Fiscal Calendar for 2015/16’, available from the Arden Tandoori from next Tuesday. Instead we have him with an iPad, displaying the logo.

Chris Jordan unable to hide his excitement – note the array of trophies on the mantelpiece

Jordan joins the project on the back of a half marathon PB in Reading where he led home Simkiss and McCarthy in a time of 1:10:20, surpassing the much talked about 1:10:30 that McCarthy laid down as the MCKEP club record. Ratification of the new club HM record will come once McCarthy and Simkiss decide if anyone else is allowed to hold club records outside of them two, in keeping with the new strategic direction of the project, it is likely to happen. So far the acceptance of Jordan is the only confirmed addition, following rumours that there were ongoing discussions with Batavia of Godiva, Brookes of Holmfirth, Hopkins of Kenilworth and Scott Moore of the Hanson’s Distance Project, Michigan. With the project aspiring to challenge for the EMGP team prize this year, whoever moves in to take that vital 4th spot could prove all the difference.

A stalwart of the Leicester CorinthiansContrarians Coritanians (Sp), Jordan become known to the project when he beat McCarthy at the Autumnal 5, late in 2014. He then went on to become a ‘FOTP’, writing such literary classics as ‘Abingdon’ and ‘Trafford’.

If you have recently submitted a request to be affiliated to the Project, an emergency committee meeting has been scheduled in advance of the East Midlands Grand Prix, where all outstanding applications will be completed.